The Lounge on a Friday Night

It’s Friday night at 9 PM and your entire lounge is full. Every hookah is occupied by a group, and every group at table 7 has at least two people. The people on the left side of the table want to order mint lemonade hookah, but the people on the right side want to order double apple hookah. They don’t want to order mint lemonade and double apple hookah to share, and they don’t want to wait to order multiple hookahs. They want both right now.

As a hookah lounge owner, this is the worst problem to present itself. Each hookah can only have one flavor at a time. You can change the bowl to a different flavor, but that ruins the coal. You can set up a second hookah, but that ties up a whole extra rig. All of these solutions suck and are not effective.

There is a third solution. The Split Bowl hookah. With the Split Bowl hookah, a single bowl is divided in two by a wall so that two flavors can be cooked at the same time during the same session. A Split Bowl hookah can allow one set of tuyaux de narguilés to draw two flavors of shisha.

What is a Split Bowl Hookah?

A Split Bowl hookah is a phunnel bowl that has a solid wall to divide the bowl into two sections. Each divided side has its own shisha, and each shisha can be drawn through a separate spire that connects through the wall. Until they meet at the stem adapter, each air paths are completely separate.

The split bowl is the mostpopular bowl design in the hookah market, as it combines the benefits of a singular phunnel design with rapid airflow along with an additional spire. Also, split bowls come with wall dividers that add to the chamber design which helps keep your flavors more pure.

There are plenty of hookah brands that offer split bowls today. Among them, Hookah John and their Harmony Split bowl, contain a wide and shallow bowl that are quite popular among hookah enthusiasts. The Alpaca Split bowl is another great option. This model features a more narrow and deeper chamber with an unglazed, unglazed chamber which may provide a better option for heat retention. All of the bowls discussed above are compatible with standard hookah stems and are also capable of using a Kaloud or AOT HMD for more redefined heat management.

Many split bowls do not provide a good hookah smoking experience. Also, not every split bowl is long enough to cater to the needs for the entire dark leaf packing shisha smoking experience. Another reason a bowl doesn’t work as planned is the spire may be too tall. In time, the hookah enthusiast learns what works what doesn’t. One such factor is the divider, as it determines if you will have a successful session or not.

Why Run Dual Flavors?

The simple answer is variety. In a more commercial perspective, with a single bowl split hookah design, you may cater more to your customer socles de narguilé or a large customer base.

Table turnover

When you have a large table with an even larger number of patrons, you may only have a limited number of products to offer. In such a case, patrons may often ask to swap out a bowl. This can be super time consuming if you are on a large scale as it includes taking out the previous bowl, cleaning it, and repacking a whole new bowl with new flavor. However, with a single bowl split hookah design, you pack two flavors and drop the bowl on the table.

Coal efficiency

A session with a standard bowl uses three to four coals. Back to back bowls use six to eight coals. A split bowl uses three to four coals total. Your coal cost per table drops by about fifty percent.

Reduced equipment

A lounge with twenty tables will have difficulty purchasing a forty-piece rotation. A split bowl lets you provide two different flavors per hookah. That means twenty hookahs can give you forty flavors.

Cleaner workflow

Your staff will only need to pack and light one bowl, and only need to bring one hookah to the table. On busy nights, these factors will lead to a significant decrease in volume of labor that needs to be completed.

How to Pack a Split Bowl Hookah

Packing a split bowl with a divider is different from packing a standard phunnel. Here are the steps to pack a split bowl hookah.

Step 1: Dry-fit your HMD.

Get your Kaloud or AOT lotus and put it across the empty bowl. It should be level across both sides. If it rocks or tilts, then the seal is being broken and one side is going to be getting more air. Some split bowls will have some ridges from the molding. If you have a split bowl with molding ridges, you can sand them down with fine-grit sandpaper.

Step 2: Fluff pack each side independently.

Think of each chamber as a bowl of its own. Take a fork and fluff the shisha. Don’t press it. The divider wall is thin and can break if you do that. Shisha should be kept below the rim while the divider wall is kept thin.

Step 3: Leave the center divider exposed.

The divider wall should not have Shisha sitting on the rim. If Shisha is across the divider wall, the flavors will mix through the HMD holes. Shisha should be uniformly separated to have a clean dual flavor session.

Step 4: Check the rim height.

Both chambers should have the same amount of Shisha. If one chamber has a lower rim height, the HMD will touch the higher side first and will push the lower side of Shisha. This results in one chamber burning while the another one produces a troubleshooting thin smoke.

Step 5: Place the HMD gently and mark your sides.

The HMD should not be twisted. It should be set straight. Closing the lid and coals should be done after marking the sides with a sharpie on the tray or a sticker on the stem. Left side is flavor A. Right side is flavor B. Mixing flavor A and flavor B ruins the session.

Using A Split Phunnel Bowl with Two Flavors

Using a Phunnel Split Bowl presents challenges while managing heat. Each shisha has its threshold for heat tolerance, but the HMD covers both chambers. How do you tackle this challenge?

The answer is simple; go lower. If one shisha needs three coals while the other needs just two, place two coals. While the shisha with the lower set of coals will smoke clean, the other will smoke thicker, just at a slower rate. If placed, three coals will burn the other shisha and create a nasty taste.

However, focusing on similar shishas will keep you more heat efficient. For instance, do not combine dark leaf shishas with blonde shishas as a general rule. When creating a new flavor dual, explore the heating threshold, not just the flavor.

For a more advanced answer, using a Kaloud Lotus with a half-open vent on the hot side will control heat tolerances better. Other options are the AOT HMD which has a wider opening, or adjust for other shishas with wind covers. If one side of the bowl is creating thin smoke, it will be a good idea to add a wind cover to that side for two to three minutes before removing it. Don’t leave the wind cover on theother side, or it will burn the shisha.

With the Split Bowl vs Single Bowl and Swap, numbers take priority. A lounge owner needs to determine if Split Bowl Hookahs will save them money.

Single bowl + swap workflow (two flavors, one hookah):

Pack first bowl: 3 minutes. Smoke session: 45 minutes. Remove bowl, clean: 2 minutes. Pack second bowl: 3 minutes. Heat second set of coals: 5 minutes. Smoke session: 45 minutes. Total time: 103 minutes. Total coals: 6 to 8. The table occupies one hookah for nearly two hours.

Split bowl workflow (two flavors, one hookah, one session):

Pack split bowl: 4 minutes (two chambers, one bowl). Heat coals: 5 minutes. Smoke session: 60 to 90 minutes. Total time: roughly 75 minutes. Total coals: 3 to 4. The table gets both flavors simultaneously and the hookah is freed up sooner.

The split bowl uses half the coals and half the labor. A single phunnel holds 20 to 25 grams. A split bowl holds 10 to 12 grams per side. The session runs 60 to 90 minutes. But both flavors hit the table at once. The table is happy. The hookah is back in rotation faster.

For a lounge doing fifty tables per night, the coal savings alone pay for the bowl in two weeks. The labor savings pay for it in one.

Cost and Workflow Benefits for Busy Lounges

Split bowls cost more than standard phunnels. A Hookah John Harmony Split runs around $30 to $40. An Alpaca Split is similar. A standard phunnel is $15 to $25. The premium is small. The return comes from operations.

Coal consumption reported savings:

Let’s say your lounge consumes 200 coals per night at $0.08 every coal, that’s $16 per night. Using less coals for the dual-flavor tables means $8 per night savings. Ten split bowls cost $350; in about 44 nights they’ll pay for themselves.

Labor cost savings:

Let’s say your packer earns $15 per hour, and split bowls save 4 minutes of labor per table, that’s $1 per table. 20 dual- flavor tables in a night means savings of $20 per night in labor. The bowls pay for themselves in 18 days.

Table turnover improvement:

Split bowls reduce session time by 20 to 30 minutes. That extra time per 4 hour rush means one extra table per hookah per night. One extra table means $40 extra revenue. That means $400 extra revenue in a night.

There is a minimal workflow change. Your staff will learn split bowl packing in one shift. It is easy to train your staff on the left-right marking system and make it your standard operating procedure.

To Avoid Common Mistakes in Split Bowl Packing:

Overpacking

The number one mistake that people make is that they always pack the bowl too tightly. The tobacco, when heated, expands and will begin to push above the partition. If this happens, the flavors in the tobacco will mix.

Underpacking

In some cases, underpacking happens. This means not enough tobacco is packed. This causes a thin smoke as well as a hot and harsh smoke due to the heat diffuser being too close to the tobacco surface. The bowls should be filled to just below the rim in order to achieve the best flavor.

Wet tobacco on the divider.

Juicy shishas can cause some leakage that clogs the divider and can lead to unpleasant flavor mixing. A paper towel prior to packing can help absorb the excess moisture.

Ignoring HMD fit.

Split bowls don’t all share the same dimensions and won’t all fit the same HMDs. The Alpaca Split Bowl is a bit wider than the Harmony Split. An example of a perfect fit is the Kaloud Lotus and the Harmony Split. Always verify HMD compatibility with every bowl.

No lid management.

The first few minutes of a session, keep the HMD lid fully shut. After that, it should only be half closed. If one side of the bowl burns faster than the other, it should be adjusted to favor that side.

Is the Split Bowl Right for Your Lounge?

The split bowl isn’t a great fit for all lounges. For some of your customers, the joy of what you offer may be in the ability to pick a single flavor for an extended session. Don’t feel the pressure to offer split bowls to all customers.

The best lounges own ten standard phunnels and ten split bowls. They swap based on the table. A group of two sharing a single flavor gets a standard phunnel. A group of four or more who want variety gets a split bowl. The flexibility is the point.

The split bowl hookah market is becoming increasingly popular and more manufacturers are beginning to make them. If you haven’t tried a Phunnel split bowl in your lounge, you are leaving money on the table.

Try a completely new bowl for a week. Fill it up. Smoke it. Check how your employees react. Observe less coal consumption. Observe an increase in table turnover. Observe your customers smile, both getting their desired flavor.

The ultimate Friday night dilemma is now a thing of the past. Introducing the Split Bowl Hookah, for two flavors in one bowl, for one session.